Cuomo Takes a New Approach in Unveiling His 2017 State Budget Proposal

ALBANY — Following a weeklong road show complete with bold PowerPoint presentations and standing ovations, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Tuesday unveiled the fine print of his plan in the state capital, offering a New York State budget proposal totaling over $152.3 billion to a wary Legislature.

Though far drier than the governor’s State of the State addresses last week, the budget plan made clear that Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, remained intent on casting his 2017 agenda as an answer to the concerns of the middle class and the economic struggles of upstate New York, a formula that some observers have taken as the prelude to a possible presidential run in 2020.

But much of Mr. Cuomo’s agenda seemed to hinge on a proposal that the Republican-controlled State Senate has already pushed back on. Under the governor’s budget proposal, two of the top items on his wish list — covering state college tuition for hundreds of thousands of low- and middle-income New Yorkers, and a package of tax cuts aimed at the middle class — would be made possible in part by a three-year extension of a higher tax on people who make more than $1 million a year, another policy favored by liberals. Along with $2.5 billion in Medicaid and agency cuts, the tax would help fill a $3.5 billion projected deficit in the state budget, caused by falling income tax revenue.

“We do not cut taxes for millionaires,” Mr. Cuomo said at a Tuesday evening briefing for the news media, explaining that the loss of the tax, which is scheduled to expire this year, would cost the state about $4 billion in revenue. “We do cut taxes for the middle class.”

Mr. Cuomo also proposed budgeting an extra $1 billion in education funding this year, a $2 billion investment in clean-water infrastructure and various other expensive projects, including hundreds of millions of dollars in economic-development for Buffalo ($500 million), a life sciences research and development cluster ($550 million) and new airports in Syracuse and Plattsburgh.

The governor noted proudly that he was once again proposing a spending increase of less than 2 percent over last year, a self-imposed cap he has made a centerpiece of his fiscal policy throughout his governorship.

The state is facing uncertainty over how deeply President-elect Donald J. Trump and the Republican-led Congress will cut into federal tax revenue and how the looming repeal of the Affordable Care Act might affect the state. Mr. Cuomo was set to meet with Mr. Trump on Wednesday.

Some of the governor’s proposals require little or no state funding, like a set of ethics reforms that have, in past years, died in the Legislature.

Echoing his State of the State addresses last week, Mr. Cuomo also called for urging local governments to consolidate services to save taxpayer money; raising the age of criminal responsibility; legalizing ride-sharing apps like Uber and Lyft in upstate New York; and imposing what amounted to a price ceiling on certain pharmaceutical drugs. The governor even found time to propose serving beer and wine from New York breweries and vineyards in state movie theaters and setting light shows to music at New York bridges.

Two of the most expensive question marks concern what are shaping up to be two of the governor’s signature proposals. Mr. Cuomo began the year by unveiling a pledge to cover the cost of tuition at state colleges for families making up to $125,000 a year, a plan that his administration estimated would cost $163 million a year by 2019 — a mere “rounding error” in the education budget, the governor said on Tuesday, but that experts have warned could ultimately cost far more.

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Carl E. Heastie, the State Assembly speaker, at the state Capitol on Tuesday.CreditNathaniel Brooks for The New York Times

He has also put a $10 billion overhaul of Kennedy International Airport at the center of his ambitious infrastructure plans, but few details have emerged about its funding, apart from suggestions that up to $7 billion could come from private sources.

The governor also proposed a statewide program to ensure legal representation for the poor that would cost about $240 million, to be overseen by the state’s Division of the Budget. That was a fraction of the $800 million program that the Legislature passed last year, which Mr. Cuomo vetoed in December over financial concerns. Public defenders and advocates of criminal justice reform almost immediately criticized the governor’s proposal as falling far short of the protections afforded by the Legislature’s bill.

The governor’s rollout was unorthodox: Gone were the traditional address to the legislators and the nuts-and-bolts briefing with financial analysts. Mr. Cuomo instead met legislators in a series of closed-door briefings at the governor’s mansion.

With the briefings, the governor was trying to show lawmakers some deference after several weeks of public tensions. Mr. Cuomo devoted parts of his State of the State addresses last week to blaming legislative leaders for failing to sign an agreement on funding affordable housing and homeless services, and urged the Senate again on Tuesday evening to release the funds.

The private meetings drew criticism from the Albany press corps and government watchdogs, who questioned why the governor’s office had not initially scheduled a public budget briefing.

Advocates and lawmakers were still combing through the details of the budget for any such surprises on Tuesday, though Mr. Cuomo said there were no such cost shifts this year. But a rift quickly opened over the so-called millionaires’ tax, which Assembly Democrats have consistently supported extending and which the Senate majority leader, John J. Flanagan, said would cause wealthy New Yorkers to flee the state.

Mr. Flanagan said some of his members were also concerned about the impact Mr. Cuomo’s tuition program would have on private colleges, among other questions about the proposal.

Carl E. Heastie, the Bronx Democrat who serves as the Assembly speaker, suggested that the millionaires’ tax would be a top priority for his conference, as would education funding and criminal justice reform.

And while there will likely be many issues on which they disagree, both Mr. Heastie and Mr. Flanagan said that reports of bad blood between the State Senate and the governor may have been overstated.

Asked how he knew that he and the governor were getting along, Mr. Flanagan joked, “He tested my food before he let me eat it.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A19 of the New York edition with the headline: After Week on Road, Cuomo Budget Show Has Premiere for Legislators. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe